Pilates

This Venn diagram does a nice job describing the overlap of benefits of Pilates and yoga and the distinct differences between the two forms of exercise.

So, in a previous post, I talked about yoga poses and integrating those into your pre and post snowboard routine. Since that post, a woman came into my life and started talking about her Pilates studio. As is most of my life, I found her banter serendipitous since I am looking for more ways to strengthen, lengthen and tone pre snowboard season. I took the jump and tried my first ever Pilates class on Saturday October 10^th. I left feeling as though I had found something my regimen had truly been missing. The sculpting of my muscles has just begun, but I am definitely feeling results as I hit the 2 week mark.

Pilates reformer classes have a wide variety of tools used throughout a workout in order to strengthen and lengthen.  They work in unison to give the participant a full body workout.

 Besides being a little lost during my first class, I felt immediately like I was going to glean amazing results from adding this to my weekly cardio and strength training routine. As I have decided to embark on a twice weekly commitment to Pilates in addition to my 10 mile running minimum and increasingly difficult weight training routine, I am excited to see the results as they come along. I decided to look a little deeper into the history of Pilates, the benefits and some 411 for anyone wishing to know more about the equipment and workout routine.

I have taken the below excerpt from  a website that gives an accurate detail of the creation and History of Pilates. The source is Pilatesology.

"Pilates is an amazing, complete, and corrective system of exercise, created by a man that George Balanchine called a ‘genius of the body:’ Joseph Pilates. A German immigrant, Joe came to the US in 1926 and settled in New York City with his partner Clara. There they ran his “Studio for Body Contrology” for 50 years until his death in 1967 at age 83. Clara continued teaching the method herself until she passed the method on to their long time student and protégé, Romana Kryzanowska.

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As a child, Joe turned to exercise and athletics to strengthen his body and overcome asthma and other ailments. Always seeking to widen his knowledge, he studied many forms of exercise, and was particularly influenced by the classical Greek ideal of a man who is balanced equally in body, mind, and spirit. Joe was an avid skier, diver, gymnast, and boxer. In his writings he notes observing the movements of animals to learn how to move properly.
Pilates was NOT created for dancers
Among many myths is the idea that Pilates was created for dancers. Rather, Joe created his method on his own body and for men during World War I while interned by the British as an “enemy alien” in a civilian camp due to his German citizenship.
In Joe & Clara’s New York City studio, you might find famous boxers working alongside businessmen, opera singers, injured war veterans and prima ballerinas. But Joe often disliked teaching dancers because they tend to distort his method by over-stretching their joints. Dancers flocked to his studio anyway when they discovered how effective it is at creating the balanced, powerful and lean physique that they need. Joe was a friend to many famous choreographers, including George Balanchine, who sent 14-year-old Romana Krzyanowska to him to heal an injured ankle. "

This reformer is standard when taking a class and comes with 5 springs attached to a moving platform. The 5 springs can be used either as one at a time, or in combination with others in order to increase difficulty and resistance. Resistance is key when using Pilates as an exercise.

Reformer springs – so the class I took is reformer focused and had a collection of springs. Some routines called for a red and a blue, some for two red and still others a blue and a silver. Amidst being lost to the color coding scheme and keeping up with the routine as it went I found this info out. The box I was working on used red as the strongest reformer spring, blue as a lighter spring and silver/white as the lightest spring. I wish I had known this earlier since I felt the resistance for my upper body was lacking. I plan to add weight accordingly to my subsequent routines in order to feel more results more rapidly.